This invention relates to a cassette for holding therein an information tape, such as a magnetic tape or optical tape.
The practice of holding a tape of this type in a cassette has become popular in view of the ease with which the tape can be handled. In many types of cassettes now available, the cores on which the tape is wound are driven directly. Because of this, it is necessary to provide the cassette with a sturdy tubular shaft portion for receiving therein the drive shaft of a tape player or other machine, which hampers miniaturization. Moreover, in the cassettes of the prior art, the operation of connecting the drive shaft of the machine to the tubular shaft portion of the cassette and the operation of bringing the read-out element into engagement with the tape must be performed separately because the cassette must be moved in different directions in performing these operations. Thus, the operator is required to perform two operations, thereby reducing the operational efficiency of the cassettes.
In order to obviate defects of the prior art, proposals have been made to eliminate the tubular shaft portion of the cores by frictionally driving the tape by an endless belt which is moved with the tape. In cassettes of this type, the endless belt is merely brought into engagement with the tape which is wound on the cores. By this arrangement, however, it is impossible to obtain a sufficiently high frictional force, and it becomes necessary to use an additional tape tensioning means.